(ABC 6 News) — According to Feeding America, more than 344,000 Iowans are facing hunger, including one in six children.

With food banks seeing record-breaking demand, northern Iowans are working to create their own solutions.

The Iowa Hunger Coalition and Healthy Harvest of North Iowa hosted a roundtable discussion in Mason City.

Around 40 representatives from nonprofits to officials discussed ways to strengthen their relationships in an effort to keep Iowans nourished.

“There seems to be a lot of interest in people learning what resources each other has, have available and doing a better job of leveraging or partnering with the resources that one entity has that the other entities don’t know or don’t know how to utilize,” said Andrea Evelsizer of Healthy Harvest of North Iowa.

Healthy Harvest of North Iowa is now hoping to get a USDA grant. That money would help fund a coalition of counties and a food policy council to further focus on northern Iowa.